MARINE CONVICTED IN ADULTERY CASE IS FINED BY JUDGE

Woman who said she was victim of sexual assault also gets letter of reprimand

A military judge who convicted a Marine of attempted adultery after she reported she was too drunk to give her consent to sex sentenced her Thursday to a letter of reprimand and a $3,000 pay cut, the Marine Corps announced.

The woman, a staff sergeant stationed at Camp Pendleton who is married to a Marine chief warrant officer, was also found guilty Wednesday of obstruction of justice for denying the sexual encounter to investigators.

For the conviction involving the equivalent of misdemeanor charges, she faced a maximum possible punishment of 12 months in jail, reduction to the rank of private, loss of two-thirds pay for a year and a bad conduct discharge.

The woman’s husband continued to insist Thursday that she was a sexual assault victim, which is why her name is being withheld. “Now the healing can begin for our family and she can continue to serve honorably as she has for the past 17 years,” he said.

Military prosecutors argued that the defendant’s intoxication and sexual assault defense was merely a “web of lies” spun to avoid punishment when she was caught cheating on her husband.

“By whatever means necessary, (she) was going to save her skin. When backed into a corner, she played the ultimate trump card by claiming sexual assault,” Maj. Doug Hatch said in closing arguments. This isn’t about sexual assault, “what this case is about is obstruction of justice.”

The woman’s husband had sparked the adultery investigation when he reported to her command his suspicion of an affair. After an early release from work followed by several hours of drinking, she had stayed at a hotel with another staff sergeant from her unit.

About six weeks later, after two investigations into the alleged adultery and denials from the defendant that she had gone to the hotel, the commanding officer of the squadron stopped preparations for nonjudicial punishment and moved to try the woman by special court martial. Both forms of punishment for adultery are rare.

When the squadron legal chief told her she would be facing criminal charges, the woman said that she had wanted to tell her commander during nonjudicial punishment proceedings that she had been too drunk to consent to sex, according to trial testimony.

The chief was required to report a potential case of sexual assault. A subsequent investigation cleared the other Marine, who is single, of wrongdoing. He testified that the sex was consensual, she did not appear incapacitated and he did not know she was married.

It is unclear why the command decided to initiate nonjudicial punishment proceedings for adultery. The staff judge advocate declined this week to release legal documents in the case other than the charge sheet, citing privacy concerns.

The 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing handled the adultery case this way to protect the integrity of the sexual assault response process for victims, a spokesman said.

During the trial that started Monday, the woman’s lawyer said she did not report sexual assault right away because she anticipated “a long drawn-out court process with no guarantee he would be punished,” said Capt. Rafiel Warfield.

After extensive testimony about how much alcohol the defendant drank, the military judge, Lt. Col. Leon Francis, acquitted the woman of the adultery charge in favor of the lesser offense of attempted adultery.

The defendant waived her right to a jury of her peers and elected to be tried and sentenced by the judge. Now the convening authority in the case, a colonel in command of Marine Aircraft Group 39, could decide to dismiss the conviction or reduce the sentence.